Joshi may submit PAC report to Speaker on Saturday

April 29, 2011 16:58 IST

A day after a chaotic meeting of the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, its Chairperson Murli Manohar Joshi along with National Democratic Alliance, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Biju Janata Dal and Left members are exploring the possibility of submitting the draft report on 2G scam to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar before its term expires on Ffriday.

Joshi is understood to have held confabulations with members of like-minded parties in the PAC this morning and discussed the legal angles relating to his powers as its chairperson.

Sources aware of the developments said here that Joshi is busy examining the various rules governing the functioning of the PAC before he takes a final call on submitting the draft report to the Speaker.

A member of the committee pointed out that Joshi was "free" to submit the report to the Speaker's office even in her absence. She is on a tour to Arunachal Pradesh. Joshi is also going through the objections raised by UPA members in yesterday's meeting.

The United Progressive Alliance members, however, feel Joshi cannot go ahead and submit the report as it was not passed by the PAC. Eleven members of the committee, belonging to the Congress, DMK, Samajwadi Party and the Bahugun Samaj Party had "rejected" the draft report on Thursday.

These members had also accused Joshi of presenting a "one-sided" report with the malafide" intention of destabilising the government. They demanded that he step down as PAC chairperson. A couple of members had accused Joshi of "outsourcing" the report, a charge they later withdrew.

There were charges and counter-charges over leakage of the report among the PAC members from both sides.